Edited by Marty Halpern
Night Shade Books, $15.95, 491 pages
Editor Marty Halpern serves up quite the extraterrestrial feast, actually more like an all you can eat buffet in Alien Contact. Here one will find 26 reprinted stories about encounters with alien creatures. The problem with such short story collections is that there is too much here to fully appreciate sometimes and one may find themselves having to re-read stories which they tried to jam through. The book is not really a collection about UFOs, instead one will find themselves visiting alien worlds for a variety of reasons.
The collection does have a lot of interesting stories and there is likely something here that will grab everyone. The book does not contain some of the old time classics, even some of the stories mentioned in the back room dealing introduction, but one can pick and choose. All sorts of scenarios are explored, and one can keep on going back to this book which will provide some sustaince for all members of the family. The book is huge with ideas and not suggested for one sitting. It may be too much all together, but with its spice, fun to read on consecutive sittings.
Ryder Miller